Void engineering to promote the self-cleaning properties of bactericidal zinc oxide nanopillar array coatings

Hassanpour, Amir; Groleau, Marie-Christine; Messaoudi, Dalya; Greschner, Andrea; Kohlmann, Katharina; Ruediger, Andreas ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-0815-5288; Déziel, Éric ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-4609-0115; Sun, Shuo et Gauthier, Marc A. ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-5408-6570 (2025). Void engineering to promote the self-cleaning properties of bactericidal zinc oxide nanopillar array coatings Materials Advances . pp. 1-9. DOI: 10.1039/d5ma00180c.

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Résumé

Bacterial infections are easily spread by touch, and some bacteria can survive for months on certain surfaces. Current disinfection approaches and self-sanitizing coatings have limitations, which provides the impetus for developing new inexpensive coatings that combine bactericidal activity and self-cleaning properties. One way to achieve this is to mimic natural arrays of nano-pillars, such as those found on insect wings and plant leaves. Accordingly, arrays of zinc oxide nano-pillars display self-sanitizing properties, which are influenced by their dimensions, shape, and spacing. However, a key characteristic of these coatings is their water wettability, which increases the tendency for water-borne contaminants to attach. This wettability is caused by the voids between the nano-pillars that form a network of capillaries. To address this issue, this study introduces modifications to the current hydrothermal production method to adjust the characteristics of these voids, without altering the nano-pillar density in the array. A new hierarchical 'nano-porcupine' morphology is also reported. These modifications to the void structure significantly affected the surface chemistry and wettability of the coatings, improving their self-cleaning properties without compromising their bactericidal activity, as demonstrated by five different tests.

Type de document:	Article
Informations complémentaires:	This work was supported by the Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council (NSERC, RGPIN-2021-03301, RGPIN-2019- 07158, RGPIN-2020-06771) of Canada and the Fonds de Recherche du Québec—Nature et Technologies (FRQ-NT, 2022-PR-301076, 2022-PR-300412). A. H. acknowledges a postdoctoral scholarship from the FRQNT. M. A. G. is a Research Scholar of the FRQ-Sante´
Mots-clés libres:	-
Centre:	Centre Énergie Matériaux Télécommunications Centre INRS-Institut Armand Frappier
Date de dépôt:	07 juill. 2025 19:09
Dernière modification:	07 juill. 2025 19:09
URI:	https://espace.inrs.ca/id/eprint/16539

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